The Lakewood boys basketball team bested their season free-throw percentage Monday night in its 77-70 win over Thornapple-Kellogg.

The Vikings, who entered the postseason shooting 85 percent as a team from the charity stripe, made 31 of 33 attempts against the Trojans for a success rate of 94 percent.

"We've been really coming together as a team the last month and a half," Lakewood coach Wayne Piercefield said. "We had a tough stretch with Corunna and Lansing Catholic down the stretch, two teams that beat us pretty handily the first time we played them, but the second times, and we played right with them.

"We had some trouble with the press that we haven't had this season, but I am extremely proud of the guys. 31 for 33 from the free-throw line is going to win you a lot of ball games. We've shot them well all year, and it is something we drill every day in practice."

Entering Wednesday's game, Lakewood had an entire week off. Due to their participation in a tournament over winter break, the Vikings played their final regular-season game on Feb. 22.

Piercefield said he was worried about not playing last week, but he thought his team took advantage of the time off.

"The week off we had last week we thought was a curse," he said. "Having a week of is something you never want, but that was the best week of practice we have had all year.

"We have gotten better with our defensive rotations. (Last week in practice) We were physical, we communicated and we had fun. We grew so much the last five days."

Like in their regular-season game inside the gym at Portland High, against the Raiders, Lakewood got off to a strong night shooting the basketball. In the second quarter on Monday, they led T-K 14-13 before hitting three straight 3's to take a 23-13 advantage.

They made six from behind the arch in the first half and eight the game.

The Vikings held a 48-40 advantage heading into the third and despite giving up 30 points in the fourth, they made 16 of 17 free throws over the last eight minutes as part of a 29-point period.

Alex Potter led Lakewood with 18 points, while Michael Carr and Jacob Buehler finished with 12 points each and David Parks chipped in with 10.

The Vikes out-rebounded the Trojans 31-21 with Dylan Durkee and Parks leading the way with six boards each.

Lakewood (8-13) will take on Hastings on Wednesday in the first district semifinal of the evening at Portland High School. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.